Nathaniel's Assorted Wonders (Top Ten Preamble)

by Nathaniel R

THE WONDERFUL STORY OF HENRY SUGAR © Netflix

PART 1 - In real life I am exceedingly punctual. The same is not true of my online listing life. But one of my goals for 2024 is rethinking and clarifying my lifelong need to talk about the movies. So stayed tuned but please follow on Substackd and Letterboxd and Instagram while I sort that out. I am hoping to return to writing, twice weekly. That's the goal. I've accepted that I'll never be able to do the daily churn again that kept the site lively. Bless Cláudio and the rest of the team who have filled in some of my gaps. The world has moved on (social media has replaced incessant blogging and consumption of blogging). Plus I also burned out trying to produce that much. But enough navel-gazing for the moment!

The next week at the site is dedicated to wrapping up my own long-running awards (now in their *gulp* 24th year) and talking about Oscar night (which is about to happen), so here are brief thoughts on some favourite film things of the year which I hope you'll use along with awards themselves as a 'recommended' guide when you're looking for something to watch...

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11 Quick Observations about the Oscar Nominations

Did you toon into the Oscar nominations this morning. Jack Quaid and Zazie Beetz (in particular) did a fine enthusiastic job of announcing the nominations in Oscar's 23 categories. There were surprises and shut-outs and overperformers as per usual. You can see the complete list of nominations at the Oscar Charts Index Page (though the individual charts per category are not yet updated).

Herewith 11 quick obversations about the nominations before we dive in to individual categories.

1. BARBIE FATIGUE (SORT OF)
While America Ferrera nabbed the Oscar nod we predicted for her in Best Supporting Actress (we went 5/5 on that volatile category in our predictions) Barbie received just 8 nominations overall. That's a lot, of course, but it isn't a lot in terms of expectations and how well the film had been performing at precursors...

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Do it for Pom!

by Cláudio Alves

With its buzz and screen count curtailed by Barbenheimer, the latest Mission: Impossible movie ended its run as a box office failure. That fate is rather sad, mainly because Dead Reckoning Part One is one of the franchise's best entries, not to mention a much superior Tom Cruise project to the supposed cinema-saving smash hit that was last year's Top Gun: Maverick. Now that the movie's available on PVOD, it's the perfect time to catch it if you missed its theatrical window. I've previously written about the Ethan Hunt saga, from 1996 to now, going over the latest picture's bold anime-like tonalities where an action man faces against an evil God in the guise of AI unbound, its superb action scenes, and whatnot.

Yet, considering The Film Experience's readership, the best way to convince you to give the movie a chance might be an appeal to its bonafide actressexual cred. In other words, do it for Pom…

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Box Office: Mission Impossible, Theater Camp, and more

By Nathaniel R

Tom Cruise is an eternal draw at the box office but Mission Impossible still came in under expectations. Was it that clumsy "Part One" in the title (on the SIXTH film in a franchise no less)? Movies are starting to move away from this since the audience can often feel had as in 'my ticket doesn't get me the full movie?' Note that Spider-Verse dropped it's "part one" title before release even though it literally ends on a cliffhanger... 

Weekend Box Office July 14th-16th 🔺 = new or expanding /  ★ = Recommended
WIDE (Over 700 Screens)	LIMITED / PLATFORM
DEAD RECKONING PT 1	THE MIRACLE CLUB
1🔺 MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE -DEAD RECKONING PART ONE $54.6 *NEW* (cum. $78.4) 4,327 screens	1 🔺 THE MIRACLE CLUB $664k *NEW* 678 screens

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Mission Impossible: A Retrospective

by Cláudio Alves

Jumping from mountaintop into the silver screen, a death dive flight through alpine air, Tom Cruise crashes cinemas with another chapter in the Mission: Impossible franchise. Inspired by the hit 60s TV show, the movies have long ago severed whatever connection they might have had with their origin, transforming into what's best described as America's answer to the James Bond flicks. But that's a hollow description as  different directors have brought distinct visions, and Ethan Hunt has so constantly changed that he's more fluid idea than character.

For the star at the center of it all, the Mission: Impossible pictures have been a chance to experiment with how far the human body can go as a tool for action entertainment. Near suicidal in their fervor, these Cruise vehicles celebrate cinema at its most muscular and obstinately analog, a scream into the darkening sky that keeps the CG night at bay. For a cinephile intent on re-watching all the movies before watching Dead Reckoning - Part One, the movie series is an enticing study of shifting priorities and tones. So, here we go, from the Hollywood of 1996 to our present crisis against AI, reconsidered as a man's mission to save Humanity by killing the man-made God…

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